Our Labs

Research in the Zakrzewski Lab

Zakrzewski Laboratory: Research Overview

Johannes Zakrzewski is a Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Attending Physician at Hackensack University Medical Center, an Associate Member at the Center for Discovery and Innovation, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University. Dr. Zakrzewski’s research focuses on the development of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of hematological malignancies.

Maintenance of remission remains a significant challenge in cancer therapy, especially in the setting of highly aggressive hematologic malignancies. The Zakrzewski lab is harnessing advances in cell engineering, protein engineering, molecular medicine and nanotechnology to develop innovative immunotherapeutic approaches targeting cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues. Several areas of current investigation in the lab include:

  • Harnessing the thymus as a bioreactor for in vivo generation of CAR T cells.
  • Targeted cancer therapy with CAR T cell-derived extracellular vesicles.
  • Combination of bispecific antibody therapy with NexImmune’s Artificial Immune Modulation (AIM) platform in multiple myeloma and AML.
  • Targeting cancer-associated molecular patterns with receptor decoy therapeutic molecules (collaboration with Vitruviae Inc.)
  • Targeted cancer therapy using a novel NF-kB inhibitor and a gold nanoparticle-based drug delivery system (collaboration with Stevens Institute of Technology).

Recent publications

  • Bariana M, Zhang B, Sun J, Wang W, Wang J, Cassella E, Myint F, Anuncio SA, Ouk S, Liou H-C, Tan M, Wang H, Zakrzewski JL. Targeted Lymphoma Therapy Using a Gold Nanoframework-based Drug Delivery System. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2023; https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c17214
  • Bariana M, Cassella E, Rateshwar J, Ouk S, Liou H-C, Heller C, Colorado I, Feinman R, Makhdoom A, Siegel DS, Heller G, Tuckett A, Mondello P, Zakrzewski JL. Inhibition of NF-κB DNA binding suppresses myeloma growth via intracellular redox and tumor microenvironment modulation. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2022 21(12):1798-1809. PMID: 36190955.
  • McGuire M, Tuckett AZ, Faith M, Zakrzewski JL. A Minimally Invasive, Accurate and Efficient Technique for Intrathymic Injection in Mice. Journal of Visual Experiments 2022; (186):10.3791/64309. PMID: 36094273.
  • Leslie J, Dr. Garcia-Macia M, Luli S, Worrell J, Reilly W, Hannah Paish , Amber Knox , Ben Barksby, Lucy Gee, Zaki M, Collins A, Burgoyone R, Cameron R, Bragg C, Xu X, Chung G, Brown C, Blanchard A, Nanthakumar C, Karsdal M, Robinson S, Mannas D, Sen G, French J, White S, Murphy S, Trost M, Zakrzewski JL, Klein U, Schwabe R, Mederacke I, Nixon C, Bird T, Teuwen L-A, Schoonjans L, Carmeliet P, Mann J, Fisher A, Sheerin N, Borthwick L , Mann D. c-Rel orchestrates energy-dependent epithelial and macrophage reprogramming in fibrosis. Nature Metabolism 2020; 2(11):1350-1367. PMID: 33168981.
  • Melody Smith, Johannes Zakrzewski, Scott James, and Michel Sadelain. Post-transplant chimeric antigen receptor therapy. Blood 2018;131(10):1045-1052. PIMD: 29358181.
  • Liu HY, Tuckett AZ, Fennell M, Garippa R, Zakrzewski JL. Repurposing of the CDK inhibitor PHA-767491 as a NRF2 inhibitor drug candidate for cancer therapy via redox modulation. Invest New Drugs. 2018;36(4):590-600. PMID: 29297149.